Cryo-Sites

12.2017 — 02.2018
Ice block / Coal / Smell molecules / Printed matter / Frozen tasters (various) 

︎︎︎ Work developed in collaboration w/ Sissel Tolaas — Project enabled and supported by MU Artspace (NL)

Cryo-Sites experiments with the processes of freezing and evaporation of molecules, to observe the transformative structures of ice and document the displacement of new forms of life.

1300 kilometers from the North Pole, deep inside a mountain, the Global Seed Vault preserves seeds at −18 °C, from some of the world’s most important food crops. Located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, in the Arctic Svalbard archipelago, the location was a former coal mine. The smell of a +70,000 year-old coal sample from the mine is temporarily trapped within a frozen block of ice. As the ice melts and the water evaporates, the container disappears and the molecules are released, to be refrozen into a new block.

During the Life Time exhibition at MU, an ice tasting event was organised in collaboration with chef Franke Elshout, focusing on the experience of ice through three acts of consumption: waiting, accumulating and revealing. Narratives on the frozen substances were exchanged, relating to different communities and traditions surrounding ice cultures.